This is Karishma. Like Sanghita, she is employed for a nominal annual fee in a nearby house. Karishma's current task is to deal with all this mustard. It will take her a long time, but she may well have a whole life of bonded servitude ahead of her.

Karishma says she'd like to go to school. She is a curious child and wants to find out about the world. But secondary school enrollment rates for girls in Nepal are only 40 per cent, and children from marginalised groups, including...more »

This is Karishma. Like Sanghita, she is employed for a nominal annual fee in a nearby house. Karishma's current task is to deal with all this mustard. It will take her a long time, but she may well have a whole life of bonded servitude ahead of her.

Karishma says she'd like to go to school. She is a curious child and wants to find out about the world. But secondary school enrollment rates for girls in Nepal are only 40 per cent, and children from marginalised groups, including Dalits, are the least likely to attend.

Among Nepal's untouchable class are the Kamaiya - a social group who have traditionally sold themselves and their children into bonded labour, for as little as US$50 a year. Even though the Kamaiya system has been legally abolished, the practice of bonded child labour, or kamalari, is still prevalent. The children perform menial labour, mostly as domestic servants, or in small businesses and on farms. They work all day, every day. They have no childhoods. They don't go to school. There is nowhere to turn if they are abused. They have almost no chance of breaking out of this poisonous system to make a better life for themselves or their own children in the future.